Congressman Reprimands Father of Teen Killed

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Congressman Reprimands Father of Teen Killed


AS LONG AS YOU HAVE DUAL THINKING CITIZENS YOU WILL HAVE THIS KIND OF DIVIDE. WHEN CONGRESSMAN LUIS GUTIERREZ (D-Ill) COMES TO REALIZE THAT CALLING A MEXICAN
ILLEGAL A "BANDIDO" IS THE SAME AS CALLING A SPADE A SPADE OR A CLUB A CLUB,
WHILE HE OBJECTS TO THE JOINING OF BANDIDO TO ILLEGAL IT SHOWS TO ME AT LEAST THAT HIS LOYALTY BELONGS ELSEWHERE, HE SHOULD EITHER BE A REAL LIVE "AMERICAN" 0R GO WHERE HIS FEELINGS LAY,






Congressman Reprimands Father of Teen Killed
by Drunk-Driving Illegal Alien for
Calling Criminal Aliens 'Banditos'


Friday, April 03, 2009
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer




Ray Tranchant, a professor who lives in Virginia Beach, Va., testified on Capitol Hill on Thursday about his daughter's death after the car she was riding in was hit by an illegal alien who was driving drunk. (Photo by Penny Starr/CNSNews.com)(CNSNews.com) – In emotional testimony before a House joint panel this week, a Virginia man recalled the death of his teenage daughter in 2007 – a death caused by an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk and who had been arrested twice before the crime, but was not deported.

“Two years ago this week, my 16-year-old daughter, Tessa, and her best friend Allison were killed as they were sitting at in intersection waiting for a red light to change,” Ray Tranchant said, as friends placed a photograph of Tessa Tranchant on an easel behind him.

Since his daughter’s death, Tranchant, a professor from VIrginia Beach, has become an advocate for the enforcement of immigration law.

On Thursday, as Tranchant applauded local law enforcement in Virginia for its increased efforts to work with federal immigration authorities since his daughter’s death, he referred to individuals listed on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s database of illegal aliens with criminal backgrounds as “banditos.”

That comment drew a rebuff from Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.).
"Mr. Tranchant, can I share with you as the father of two daughters, I thank you for bringing your testimony here, but I suggest to you that if we refer to people as banditos, as you referred to them in your testimony, it does not help to solve the problem,” Gutierrez said.

Witnesses on the first panel were called to testify about ICE’s ACCESS program, the 287(g) law passed by Congress in 1996 that allows state and local law enforcement agencies to voluntarily sign up for training to enforce federal immigration law in their jurisdictions.

Some on the subcommittee charged that the law has led to widespread racial profiling and other abuses.



Antonio Ramirez is a community acitivist in Maryland who held up a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that he says he carries with him. He became a U.S. citizen and said he and many others are discriminated against because of the enforcement of immigration laws. (Photo by Penny Starr/CNSNews.com) In other testimony before a joint hearing of subcommittees on immigration, border security, the Constitution, and civil rights, Julio Cesar Mora, a 19-year-old American citizen who lives in Maricopa County, Arizona, told the committee that he and his father, who is a legal resident, were detained and harassed by sheriff officers while driving to his father’s workplace.

Antonia Ramirez, a community activist from Frederick, Maryland, said that even though he and many of his fellow Hispanics are citizens, they are often the victims of discrimination. He said illegal aliens often refuse to report crimes and even suffer abuse because they fear their families will be separated by deportation.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said he was surprised by the contrast of the witnesses’ testimony.

“I think I’m seeing the embodiment of a great big problem we have in this country and the result of it is the loss of lives, the loss of innocent human lives,” King said. “And I listen to professor Tranchant’s testimony. You have to know that he’s here to tell you today that if we had enforced local immigration law, his daughter would still be alive. Tessa and Ali would still be alive. And that’s true for hundreds, perhaps thousands of Americans who go about their lives every day, seeking to make the world a better place.”

Rep. King said the testimony by Ramirez and Mora seemed designed to persuade lawmakers that enforcing immigration laws is not a good policy.

“The message I get from you is that we shouldn’t enforce local immigration law because there are some examples of discrimination,” King said. “I don’t argue that it never happens. But I ask you, can you look at this on balance? Can you see the difference between the plea that you have made to this committee and the plea that Mr. Tranchant has made to this committee? Can you look him in the eye and say we should pass everybody over?”

“The comparison to what looks like an inconvenience to either one of you compared to the very sacred life of this man’s daughter,” King said.

Tranchant, whose mother immigrated to the United States from Ireland, told the committee he was shocked to learn the facts about the man who killed his daughter when the man was tried for vehicular manslaughter.

“I heard at the trial that Alfredo Ramos should have been and could have been deported long before he killed my daughter,” Tranchant said. “In fact, this wasn’t the first time he’d been involved in this kind of an incident. It wasn’t even the second time. Ramos had been arrested twice before.”

“Instead of being deported to his home country, he stayed on the streets of Virginia Beach to drink, drive, and kill these two beautiful girls in a way that showed wanton disrespect for the laws of our land,” he said.



Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said he believed that if federal immigration laws were enforced Tranchant's daughter's life would have been spared. (Photo by Penny Starr/CNSNews.com) Ramos, whose blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit, was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

But Rep. Gutierrez said he thought the committee was “missing the point.”

“I think we’re missing the point of the testimony here this morning and just so we have it very clear, no one ever has debated, promoted law that does not deport drunks, that does not deport rapists and murderers,” Gutierrez said. “Part of the problem is, it’s been said here by some of my colleagues on the other side -- enforce the law.”

“This Congress and the government of the United States has not shown the political will nor committed the requisite resources to enforce the immigration law,” he said. “The only way to really do that is to have comprehensive immigration reform. You either sweep millions and millions of people off the streets of the United States of America, which no one is going to propose. So it’s always a little disingenuous to me when people say only enforce the law.”

“What I have seen, unfortunately, is the will to target and to victimize and to scapegoat a community of people,” Gutierrez said. “I have seen that readily here. It makes for great political points but it doesn’t solve the problem and would not have saved your daughter’s life."

Gutierrez said anti-immigrant sentiment is not new in this country.

“The Irish [were] the dirty, filthy element that was coming here to undermine America. Well, it gave us a President Kennedy,” he said.

Rep. Gutierrez recently embarked on a five-week tour, visiting 16 American cities, to “document the harm” caused by the lack of “comprehensive immigration reform.” As part of his Family Unity Immigration Outreach Tour, Gutierrez held community meetings for U.S. citizens whose families are at risk of “being torn apart by a broken immigration system.”

Gutierrez’ critics, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform, say he is “promoting amnesty for millions of illegal aliens and the dismantling of immigration law enforcement programs.”







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moriarity at 04:06 AM - April 04, 2009
Let's not forget Gutierrez' political cabal......Chicago, Illinois, does that strike a familiar political ideology? B.O. is part of this criminal cabal and he's proud of it! The nerve of this gutless jerk chastising the father who lost his daughter to a repeat offender who's an illegal alien. If I were that father I could not have controlled myself being chastised by these congressional Marxists! It's always the same with these twisted morons, embrace the perpetrator and demonize the victim.

rainfrog at 02:52 AM - April 04, 2009
We need to ammend the congressional oath of office to read as follows: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the CITIZENS, LANDS and Constitution of the United States against all enemies OR PERILS, foreign or domestic..." As is, the oath allows too much wiggle room for disloyal ethnists to pursue agendas for various ethnic groups. Push for this simple change, and we can start to hold some of these disloyal representatives accountable. Congress should loyally represent all ordinary citizens, not a diversity of non-citizens. Unless we push for moderate reforms such as these, a second civil w_a_r may be soon to follow.... --Frogface, bleeding Kansas

pg at 01:39 AM - April 04, 2009
Once again the people of America and the Law are under attack by a pandering congressman. Mr. Gutierrez should be ashamed of the way he spoke to the grief stricken Mr. Tranchant. I am sure Mr. Gutierrez would have been controlled and measured if it happened to a daughter of his. Mr Gutierrez is lucky Mr Tranchant didn't come across the desk and beat him to an inch of his life. As for the legal immigrant and the naturalized citizen who testified, at least they did it the right way. For that I commend them and welcome them to the US. However, their premise that because we enforce immigration laws we make their lives unpleasant. This is so upside down. Instead, their lives would be less complicated if the illegals were not here and the Latino communities would not continue hiding them and making excuses as to why they are here. Mr. Tranchant's description of bandito is perfectly correct. Illegals are felons for breaking into the US. It is no different than breaking and entering

honor at 01:26 AM - April 04, 2009
gutierrez representive of the people of illegal behavior in congress of united states! back ground check type person! naturalized citizen representative in congress of united states? naturalized how many are in our united states goverment? GUTIERREZ said, comperhensive immigration reform answer? either you sweep millions and millions off the streets of united states of america WHICH NO ONE IS GOING TO PROPOSE? oh really!!!! illegal mexican general gutierrez also said ANTI- IMMIGRATION sentiment is not new in this country? yes but the difference today it's a invasion of unkown ILLEGAL invaders we are concern about here gutierrez??? millions and millions and million cross our borders each and every year! cost suffering victims are U.S. gutierrez? our mothers! daughters! fathers! our childrens lives are being lost. QUESTION is for what propose? CHEAP LABOR ARGUMENT!! thats nice to the families of the victims! enforce! deport! millions and save billions!! sounds good to U.S. PERIOD. AMEN.

Linda Mae at 01:20 AM - April 04, 2009
My American citizenship class had definite ideas about ILLEGALS coming to America. They would not even use the word immigrant because they didn't consider illegals as immigrants. They were lawbreakers as far as they were concerned. There are rules and regulations for becoming a naturalized citizen - available on line - and it is not complicated. Come here with the right visa, live and work for 5 years, fill out the application and then pass the oral exam. It has become PC to conjoin the words illegals and immigrants to be one group. Not right. My class also thought the 14th Amendment should be changed so that anyone born here would have the citizenship of his/her parents. One student used the analogy that a cat is a cat - whether it is born in the house or in the barn. You can't become a citizen of many, many countries. My class kept reminding me that America is still a great place to be - that many in the world want to come her for its freedoms - and laws.

oldtimer76 at 01:08 AM - April 04, 2009
nodak at 02:47 PM - April 03, 2009 There is no way to deport the millions of illegals **************************************************** If you check our history you will find that millions of illegals have been rounded up and deported before. So it is not an impossibility as some would have you believe.

Chantal at 12:28 AM - April 04, 2009
Gutierrez is an embarrassment to every person with an IQ above 10. He should be reminded he took a sworn oath to protect and defend our Constitution and the people of this country and not just those who share his heritage, and certainly not those here illegally who kill U.S. citizens. This man is paid by our tax dollars yet he spends the majority of his time traveling around the country inciting civil unrest and defending those who violate the very laws he has sworn to uphold. Gutierrez should be brought up on charges of treason and dereliction of duty. It is a travesty to allow this man to sit in judgment of any law-abiding citizen. He is: a disgrace to his office; an embarrassment to law-abiding Latinos; and a lead agitator for groups, such as LaRaza, that are relentless in their attempts to turn this country into a mirror image of the third world countries the illegal aliens left behind.

cyndiobannon at 12:10 AM - April 04, 2009
I live in the Dallas area, and recently it seems like there has been an increase in deaths from drunk driving, and in virtually every case it turned out that the culprit was a Hispanic man in the country illegally. In several cases, the drunk entered the exit ramp of a freeway and hit the victim's car headon. It is outrageous!

nvcat at 12:04 AM - April 04, 2009
This is one congressman that should leave office. If you aren't smart enough to get the point of " a death " and an "illegal alien" you don't belong in office. Not all illegals are mexicans, and yes he could have been more tactful. The point is still ILLEGAL, DRUNK and a horrible death. I lost my best friend to a drunk driver 40 years ago. It never goes away the lady was also my mother.

silversword63 at 10:44 PM - April 03, 2009
Most of us here in the USA came from people who immigrated legally here from other countries. The key word here is LEGALLY. Our ancestors came to make a better world, a better place for their families. ILLEGAL immigrants are those who choose to break the laws of the country they are immigrating to. These people have no regard for our laws, our customs, our country. Many of them are gang members, drug runners, Islamic terrorists and Mexican mafia. As such they are here to destroy our country, to pillage and rape and kill. Deport them when they are found. It doesn't matter what they are doing, they are illegally. Which means by their very presence they break our laws. What part of ILLEGAL do our politicians not understand